Taking photographs of smoke is a great activity for wet nights when you don't feel like going out but still want to use your camera.
You'll need a flash - off-camera, an incense stick or other source of smoke, a desk lamp and a black background.
The lamp is simply to help focus on the smoke - the tip of the incense stick is a good target for focussing. It's important to stop light from the flash straying onto the black background or into the camera lens. The two black cards fixed to the flashgun help to prevent this.
The flash is the light source for taking the photos. You'll need some way of triggering it. Radio triggers are great but a sync cord can be used. If the camera has a built-in flash you could try using this to trigger the external flash optically.
Once you have your images a little work in Lightroom is all that's needed to force the background to pure black and to lighten the smoke.
Take the images into Photoshop to add colour and drama.
Let your imagination roam freely...
Credits:
All images ©Roger Walton